Walking Through Time | Paolo Scoppola | Paolo Scoppola

Interactive video installation on single screen (4m x 2.25m). Designed and realized for the project “On the Trail of the Glaciers” by Fabiano Ventura, in collaboration with Macromicro Association.

Events

On the Trails of the Glaciers – Pigorini Museum, Rome 14.12.2014-25.02.2015
Winter Enrichment Program – King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, Saudi Arabia 09.01.2016-22.01.2016
European Researchers’ Night – Roma Tre University, 30.09.2016
Epson 2109 Calendar presentation – Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia – Milan 21.11.2018

The installation born with the intent to live a sensory experience on the theme of time. What is the meaning of a century of history spent on these huge rivers of ice that shape the mountains? The spectator itself can investigate this intriguing question thanks to the latest digital technology by interacting with the photographs of the project through the movements of his own body. A large screen welcomes the public, reproducing mountain landscapes from the past. As soon as someone gets closer, the software displays the image of the same place in the present through a variety of graphical effects that are driven by the steps of the spectators. The experience is also accompanied by interactive auditory contributions, which are created with sounds of nature, voice-overs and other material taken from the documentaries of the project.

The installation is shown on a big screen into a partially closed room. On the floor in front of the screen is an underlined interactive area for the spectator. The rest of the public can freely stand behind the interactive spectator. The photographic comparisons are reproduced with a perfect alignment and are shown in a temporary sequence. There are three different interactive modes exploitable by the viewer.

Cross Dissolve – by walking forward or backward to the screen the photography of the past dissolves into the one from the present and viceversa. For every picture there is a sound of the nature whose intensity changes depending on the spectator position.

Sliding Door – by walking left or right the viewer moves a vertical bar that divide the screen in two parts one reproducing the past and the other the present in a perfect alignment. For every picture there is a sound of the nature whose intensity changes depending on the spectator position.

Windows – by walking forward or backward to the screen a window opens on the image of the past showing the corresponding image from the present.

Multi-user (Optional): more windows can be opened at the same time allowing the interaction of multiple viewers (up to six) at the same time.

About the project

“On the Trails of the Glaciers” is an interdisciplinary project of Macromicro, a no profit Association. The project, thanks to specialized photographers and a unique international Scientific Committee, conjugates photographic comparison and scientific research to analyze the effects of climate change on the biggest mountain glaciers of the Earth.

Glaciers are indeed the most sensitive and reliable climatic indicators, which allow the study of the current climatic situation and of its evolution through the time. Analyzing the glaciers is somehow like opening a database, a natural archive, which describes past and present history of our living environment.

Links

On the Trails of the Glaciers
Macromicro Association

Press

Repubblica
La Stampa
ANSA Cultura

Technical details

OpenFrameworks 0.8.3, OSX 10.10